Tiger Lily puts the vial on the small table. “But you didn’t. Why?”
“Peter.”
“Peter?” She shakes her head. “How so?”
“He killed Tootles. Right in front of me.” I can see him as if I’m still in that cage in the cave. “Geo—killed him too.” He drained so many Lost Boys, trapping them here forever. They’ll never get to see their loved ones again in whatever sort of life comes next—if there is one. I don’t know, but I know whatever it is, it’s better than being a ghoul child with fire red eyes that rises each full moon. “He’s hurt me so badly, tricked me in ways that stole parts of my soul. I’m tainted by him. I … I killed Slightly.” My body shakes violently as I confess, but the shudders settle, and I continue. “So I could escape. Slightly—he’d never hurt anyone.” I let the dissonance in that statement sink in. “Except he did, didn’t he? He hurtme.” I push my bandaged knuckles into my eyes and rub. “Because Peter made him do it. The Lost Boys have no choice. They’re forced to do horrible things by Peter. Peter is the reason for all of it, even though I don’t know why. I don’t know what he wants. I wish I did.”
Tiger Lily’s eyes widen when I use the dreaded word.
“But it doesn’t matter anymore. I don’t care what he wished for. I don’t care what his reasons are. All I know is that I want him dead.” I pull the blanket up to my chin. “I want him to die for everything he’s taken from me and so many others.” Mywords are so vicious, so unnatural coming from my own lips. But what’s worse is that I find I mean every single one of them. I want to avenge Coy, Tootles, Slightly—all of them. All the lives Peter has taken. A memory cuts through my train of thought. “He killed fairies. Did you know that? Tinker Bell told me he made her hunt down her own kind. Then he forced her to watch as he drained them.”
Tiger Lily’s face goes pale in the firelight.
“She wants him dead as much as I do, but she’s under his control, too. That’s how he operates—control.”
“Surely, she’s lying.” Tiger Lily runs a hand down her face. “The fae—they’re sacred. The closest thing the island has to physical embodiments of its magic and its will. To kill them, todrainthem… If he’s done that, Peter is cursed. The island will not forgive him.”
“Is that so?” I’m growing tired, my voice hoarse. “Then why does the island let him run wild? Why does the island do nothing as he kills his way through the fae, the Lost Boys?—”
“My people,” she says quietly. “We started finding them drained and some simply murdered. It was soon after Hook went into the island’s sacred heart. We thought it was him for the longest time. It made sense. His deal with the island set so much darkness into motion.” She stands and paces beside me. “If I could go back, I would’ve cut him down right then and there. It would’ve stopped all of this from happening.”
“Is that true, though? I don’t think so. All these things were already in motion.” I let my eyes fall closed and listen to the quiet sound of her feet moving back and forth. “Peter’s evil didn’t just spring up overnight.”
She turns sharply, still pacing. “That’s true. He’s always had … tendencies. A prideful streak. Some cruelty. But Peter had a code, one he lived by above all others—fairness. He believed in fairness, as if it was his personal touchstone. So much so that he’d change sides mid-skirmish if he found the Lost Boys far outnumbered their foes.” Another sigh. “But that was long ago, long before Wendy Darling came. His code vanished, right along with our friendship.”
“Do you think Wendy has something to do with all this?”
“Of course.” She sinks beside me again and wipes my forehead. “Your line is tied to the island. When she came, I feel as if she awoke something here. And it grew and grew, pulling in Peter, Hook, and anyone who came near. Hook succumbed first, visiting the heart of the island. The sun stopped rising, the creatures became more vicious than even our elders could remember. And then Peter followed, making things so much worse.”
“He wished for love.” I’m drifting now, my mind dark at the edges. “Hook. He wished for love, and he thinks the island gave me to him.”
Her hand stills. “Love?”
“Mmhmm. He told me.” I don’t mention what Hook and I didafterhe told me, though I suppose Tiger Lily can work that out on her own. She heard it that night at Hook’s Hideaway.
“Do you suppose Peter made the same request?” she asks.
“No.” I answer so quickly it startles me back into the pain of being awake. “Peter would never ask for anything like that. He’d only ask for something for himself, something he coulduse.”
“And the island gave you to him, too?” she prods.
“I don’t know.” I meet her eyes. “I don’t know what the truth is. I never have, apparently. Peter said …” I swallow hard. “Peter said Hook is the reason my mother faded away, the reason she succumbed to her illness.”
“I see.” She wipes my cheeks as if she can swipe my fever away with gentle strokes. “But you must remember, Peter is a liar.”
“So is Hook.”
“Fair.” She puts the cloth in the bowl of cool water. “But who does your heart believe?” Rising again, she stokes the fire then turns to me. “Rest. We’ll protect you. If Peter shows up, I’ve already instructed Bunk to get you as far away from here as possible.” Her eyes are sad, the weight of the island resting on her shoulders. I suddenly wonder what the rest of her story is. Has she had love and lost it? Something in her demeanor tells me yes, but she turns and walks away before I can even formulate a question. Tiger Lily remains a mystery. But I’m beginning to suspect she may also be turning into a friend.
“You’re looking better.”Shiner sits beside me and spoons me something with the consistency of oatmeal. “Not great, but better.”
“Thanks, I guess.” I take another spoonful. It has the slightest bit of heat, as if the cook knocked over the hot sauce bottle into the pot before setting it upright again. But it’s also sweet. I actually enjoy it, though I won’t tell Widow or Cookson. Which reminds me. “Where’s Hook now?”
She shrugs. “I took off as soon as Nessie raised the alarm that you were in danger.”
“How’d you get through the woods?”
“I’m a Guardian. There’s nowhere on the island I haven’t been. Even into the Silver Mountains.” She shivers. “But I hope I never see those razor-sharp peaks again. Not up close, anyway.”
